Monday Motivation Mix: 77 Pounds Down, 22 More To Go!

This is a photo of me on my last birthday. Every year for the past three years, I’ve gotten on a bike at SoulCycle to do a class with one of my favorite teachers, Danny Kopel, wherever he’s teaching that day. I think you have to do something that celebrates the fact that you’re still alive and, for me, that’s getting super sweaty at a workout. They took this photo right at the end of class. I’m covered in sweat and beyond excited. This is how I’ve enjoyed celebrating life over the past few years.

It funny that I wouldn’t hesitate to show a photo of myself covered in sweat. Now, try and shoot me on dry land without workout gear and I get pretty damned picky. Throw me in workout gear and pull up a camera after I’ve left a water bottle worth of moisture on the ground? “Cheeeeeeese!”

I’m devoted to the feeling I get when I work out regularly, that sensation that you can work through anything, that anything you want is within your grasp. I’m on the last 22 lbs now, and I’ve lost 77.

I think that’s almost an Olsen twin.

When it’s all said and done, I’ll have lost one pound shy of 100 lbs. I celebrate that every single time I hit the barre or the yoga mat at exhale, and I add a touch of fun when I can at SoulCycle at least twice a week.

Almost 100 lbs lost. 22 lbs to go.

But these last 22 lbs are resistant on a level I cannot begin to describe. My body is fighting tooth and nail to hold onto the body fat that I put on first. I’d gotten really down about it, and then I just realized that I’ll finish losing those pounds the way I lost the others: I’ll tweak one thing here, I’ll modify something else here. I’ll add Bergen Wheeler’s Core Fusion classes back in, I’ll take the excess fat out of my Starbucks coffee more often. But I’ll keep going until the game is won.

But the most important thing is that I continue to enjoy the process. I’m almost there, and I’ll get there by whipping my hair to mixes like this one. It’s all cardio and it’s a mix of past and present favorites.

It’s time to celebrate how far I’ve come and to keep my eyes on losing the rest by New Year’s Eve. Join me if you’d like to celebrate losing a little bit more.